Firefighters were caught on camera struggling to place a massive python into a sack after the reptile ate a pet cat in Chanthaburi, Thailand, on Monday.

The owner of a home, identified as 53-year-old Thongchai Jiamyungyuen, rushed outside his home after hearing his dogs barking. He was shocked to find the massive 16-feet-long python next to a drain in front of his home. He soon realized that the reptile had eaten his pet cat and immediately alerted the firefighters.

Recalling the incident, Jiamyungyuen said, “I was stunned by the size of this python because I had never seen a snake this size before. I have no idea where it came from but I noticed that it had eaten our cat, so I thought my dogs were lucky because they could have been eaten, too.”

Firefighters soon reached the scene but struggled to drag the reptile into the sack. A video of the rescue showed them holding both the ends of the python and trying to place it in the sack. At one point, the reptile manages to free itself from their grip. However, a fireman soon manages to hook snake tongs over the python’s face. The reptile is then dragged into the bag.

“The python was still digesting its recent meal, which we think was a cat. This made it harder to catch because its weight had increased from its meal. We had caught it but then it escaped while we were trying to put its huge body into the sack. Then we had to start over and the second time the whole team helped out,” Firefighter Chalermdach Pimthong said, adding that the reptile was released into the woods.